Beautiful Insanity
by YouLoveWhoYouLove
Summary: Why are Ranger and Joe working together? Stephanie of course. A new player has entered Trenton and has their sights set on stephanie Only problem: she doesn't have a clue. R/S HEA
1. An Unlikely Meeting

**Hey everyone! Brand new story! has nothing to do with Need To Know. I'm hoping this story will be much longer than my last one. Please let me know what you think in a review or PM! Also i don't have a beta so please excuse any mistakes untill i find one. If you'd like to be my beta please let me know :)**

**Hope You Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: All recognizable characters and elements belong to Janet Evanovich.**

Chapter 1: An Unlikely Meeting

Ranger sat at the bar waiting for his meeting to arrive. It was 11 o'clock on a Tuesday night so the bar on stark street was empty except for the bartender and the alcoholic passed out at a table in the far corner of the bar. Normally he would have rescheduled the meeting for a more convenient time, one that didn't interfere with him miss a redecoration job. But Ranger didn't really have a choice.

Something major was going down in Trenton. The normal criminals were running scared, some of them even tried to get Rangeman to provide security for their illegitimate business practices. He had to explain that the company couldn't provide the service for criminals unless there was a government order. Ranger wasn't about to let his company go under from a bad reputation; no one would want the security of someone also aiding the ones who would commit the crimes.

The fact that Ranger couldn't get any information on what was going on was the part that frustrated him. Of course he hadn't resorted to physical methods of extraction yet… Still he was used to knowing the underground workings of Trenton and recently it felt like he had been kicked out of the exclusive club.

The door to the bar opened and his meeting walked in. One was Joe Morelli dressed in civilian clothes and a baseball hat, trying to cover his face. Ranger internally smirked, like a baseball cap was going to do anything. Ranger didn't have anything against Morelli, besides the fact that he had Steph, he was a decent cop with an understanding of the black, white and grey areas of law enforcement. But Ranger also knew that Morelli thought he was a wild card, a thug and dangerous; which is why when ranger got the call to meet him at the bar on stark street he had agreed. This was going to be an important conversation.

The other man was dressed in a pressed black suit, black tie, regulation shoes, dark sunglasses, and carried a briefcase. 'Jesus' Ranger thought,' it's like he's trying to portray the stereotype.' This guy was a FED, and by the looks of it a fairly new one to the game.

Joe nodded in Ranger's direction and all three of them moved to a table away from the bar and the slobbering drunk. As they sat down Joe introduced the FED, "This is Ricardo Carlos Manoso, Ranger this is Special agent Wilson Gent."

"Nice to meet you Mr. Manoso, you have quite the reputation with uncle Sam." Gent took his sunglasses revealing his young face. Bright eyes no lines or scars, the kid couldn't be more than 24 years old. Ranger looked to Joe who shrugged almost as if saying 'I thought the same thing but he checks out'.

"Call me Ranger." Ranger replied, "What's all this about? I have men in the field tonight and I'd prefer to be with them than on stark street."

"Have you noticed anything happening in Trenton Ranger?" Gent asked while opening his brief case. Ranger almost rolled his eyes in a way that would have made Stephanie proud. He didn't need the preamble, he just wanted the facts. Fortunately gent didn't wait for a response, "We have Intel that could lead to a mass kidnapping and murder in Trenton."

That explained why Morelli was there, as head of the homicide unit he would have to be informed. Ranger asked, "What's the Intel?"

"Man under cover working for Valentine Martinez." Rangers' eyebrow rose marginally and looked at Joe again.

"You know him?" Joe asked with disbelief. Obviously Joe had needed to be told who that was when he was informed about the situation.

"Never met him, but I've taken down some of his operations before." Ranger replied. In fact that last time ranger had gone into the wind it had been to take down Martinez operation running out of a South American city. But that was highly sensitive, and known to only his team and a few select government officials'.

"Well seems he is in town." Gent continued, "Has big plans in Trenton according to our man. We need you help in bringing him down."

Ranger stared at him for a moment blank face completely masking what he was thinking, "You don't have any of you own men so you want to use mine?"

"Oh we have plenty of men. But all of them are obligated to go through certain channels." Gent leaned in on the table; he looked like a fricken kid excited to go on a treasure hunt. Joe seemed to think the same thing because he made a noise that sounded like a muffled laugh.

"No." ranger said simply leaning back against his chair, "I don't operate in my own city, except of my own business. It's in my government contract."

It was true. Ranger had made sure that had been included in all of his contracts over the years. He couldn't risk losing Rangeman. The contracts specified Trenton, Miami and Boston and any other cities that ranger chose to start a business. More importantly it was because people operating in Trenton would be able to find out a lot of information about him if they knew where to look. They could find out about his family, his friends and Stephanie. He wasn't willing to risk the people he loved for cash.

"I am aware of this, I saw your contracts. They are ironclad." Gent remarked. They should be Ranger thought he wrote them himself after all. "However there is one more detail."

Gent pulled a vanilla envelope out of his briefcase and handed it to Ranger. Eyebrow raised ranger opened the envelope and pulled out a head shot. Dark curly hair, flawless skin, bright smile, and deep blue eyes stared back at him. Rangers grip tightened on the paper marginally before he set it on the table and pulled out the rest of the paper work.

"Martinez is working with a lot of Abruzzi's old connections. He's been informed she could be trouble." Gent explained quietly, "Our informant said that Stephanie will be a target. No question about it. Apparently Martinez is interested how a woman with no military or law enforcement background, could result in the death of Abruzzi."

"She has amazing luck." Joe replied, sounding slightly bitter, "its why were are bringing you in Manoso, to protect her and do things that we can't."

Ranger's eyes hadn't left the paperwork in front of him. Trying to take it in all at once, not wanting to miss a thing. If he did it could mean her life. His life. "I have conditions."

"Name them." Gent pulled out another file from the briefcase. A contract.

"First off there won't be a contract. I'm not going to do this under the governments thumb." Gent looked like he was about to protect but Joe reacted first and grabbed the papers from the FED and ripped them into a few pieces. "Second I want to establish one of my own men with in Martinez's operations."

"Done."

"And I want immunity, for me my men and Rangeman. I don't want to be held responsible for whatever I'm going to have to do to. And the press won't be informed of our involvement. As far as they are concerned the FBI can be the hero's."

"Acceptable terms. But I have one as well; your silence. You tell only who needs to know. And that excludes Ms. Plum." Gent's voice was stern as he put all the papers back into his briefcase and locking it tight. Ranger assumed he was trying to be intimidating. It wasn't working. Actually it was making Ranger angry. Why couldn't he tell Steph? She was in danger she should know. But Ranger would cooperate out of fear he would be taken of the case. Gent knew that and was sing it to his benefit. "I'll bring all the information you'll need to your office tomorrow. When will you start working on this?

Ranger stood stiffly from the table and began walking away anger pulsing through his body the urge to punch Gent in the face almost too strong for him to control. "I started the moment you showed me her picture."

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	2. An Unfortunate  Morning

**Hello, so here's the long awaited second chapter. I'm sorry that it's taken so long but I'm a university student and writing becomes less fun when you have 5 papers due. **

**I want to thank everyone who has read, reviewed, favorited and alerted to this story I really appreciate knowing what you think of what I'm writing. Please continue to do so!**

Chapter 2:

I was lying in my bed staring at the ceiling. It was going to be one of those days, I could just tell. I was going to roll in garbage, have to chase down a naked greased up fat man, or watch my car blow up. My name is Stephanie plum and the things I just listed are common occurrences in my life; Common enough that when I get these feelings, I normally heed them and hide in bed all day. But today was the day that my iron clad plan of hiding fell through. I needed the money from Igor Franco's bond to pay my rent and buy some hamster food for Rex. The main dilemma was that Igor was in fact a fat man who had been charged with indecent exposure.

My life wasn't as glamorous as the TV bounty hunters, although I was far better dressed than most of them. I lived in a crappy apartment that my nieces could break into without batting an eyelash (and one of them thinks she's a horse), I often didn't eat anything besides olives and peanut butter sandwiches for weeks because of my cash flow problem, and I had no formal training in bond enforcement.

I wasn't skill-less though, Ranger had taught me the basics when I started and I have an uncanny ability to poke my nose in right where it doesn't belong. If I was to be honest I'd say my biggest assets were Ranger and Joe, who also caused me the biggest headaches.

Joe Morelli is a homicide detective who I have known for as long as I can remember. More like I have known of him forever; as a kid Joe was a real trouble maker. He slept with anything in a skirt, did petty crime and was a really sleaze ball. Then he went and turned his life around and became one of Trenton's finest. The only marks on his record are ones that I helped put there.

Ricardo Carlos Manoso, AKA Ranger, is a security expert, bounty hunter, successful business man, sex god and Ex-Ranger (At least I'm pretty sure it's Ex…). I met him a few years ago when I blackmailed my cousin Vinnie to let me do skip tracing for him. He had showed me the ropes when I started, and had been sort of my mentor turned best friend over the last few years. Ranger had a unlimited supply of black vehicles and large men that he often gave me when I was down on my luck.

That was another reason I had to get out of bed. Last week Ranger had overheard me complaining to Connie about my cash flow problems and had tried to give me money. We had a slight argument which ended up with him buying me lunch at Shorty's and keeping the down payment on a house he tried to give me. I think in the grand scheme of things I won that fight.

I groaned as I slide out of bed and made my way to the bathroom in my tiny apartment. 45 minutes later I emerged showered, dressed and hair done. I poured some of the crumbs of the empty cheerios box into Rexes food bowl before grabbing my pocketbook and heading out the door.

Ten minutes later I had parked and was walking up to the store front of the bonds office when Joe walked out of the building with a case file under his arm. "Hey Cupcake, how's it going?"

I shrugged and nodded at the file, "Whatcha working on?" Here's the thing, Morelli and me would get alone perfect if it wasn't for two things my fear of commitment and his hypocrite nature. My job wasn't that safe ( as I mentioned earlier my cars get blown up with alarming frequency) and Joe wants me to quit, but he's a cop his job Is dangerous too and even though I worry about him I don't ask him to quit and go work at the button factory.

"Nothing really, I have a low profile case that I though Vinnie might know something about." Joe's eyes looked past me as he spoke and he was shifting his weight as if at any second he was about to bolt. What he said was a little off too. Unless something had changed in the past 24 hours, I was pretty sure that Joe was working on the homicide unit (my mother was never wrong with her gossip it's a point of pride in the Burg) and homicide is never really low profile. "You want to come over tonight? I'll pick up Chinese and we could-"

"I can't." I responded quickly before Joe could suggest that we get back together. "I have dinner at my parents and then me and grandma are going to Stiva's for Harold Zambelli's viewing."

Joe seemed to take the hint and said goodbye. I watched him get into his vehicle and was about to walk up to the bonds office when a black sedan pulled up to the curb.

My first instinct was Ranger, but almost as quickly I knew that this vehicle was not part of the never ending army of black cars that seemed to be at Rangers' disposal. The windows were tinted black and the chrome accents on the car shined brightly in a way that drew attention that Ranger would never let. I backed away and headed for the bonds door, my spidey sense was going crazy. But before I could hide in the bonds building the window rolled down and a large overbearing presence was at my back pushing me toward the car.

"Ms. Plum, please take a seat." The voice had a heavy accent and was aged but in typical mobster movie fashion I couldn't see what the man looked like. All I knew was that my instincts were screaming danger.

"If it's alright with you I'd rather stay out here." I sounded polite and not nearly as scared as I felt considering the large man holding me in place easily had 200lbs on me and at least one gun that I could feel at the base of my back. The fact that I sounded so calm resolved my resolution to go to the Tasty Pastry as soon as I got of this. Rent could wait a few days, I needed to deal with my emotional trauma first.

"Of course Ms. Plum, may I call you Stephanie?" I nodded briefly before the man continued. "I would like to offer you a job with my…company. You would be fairly compensated and far safer than you would be as a bond enforcer."

I had no intention of taking the job but curiosity was one of my major downfalls. "What kind of job is this?"

"You have experience as a purchaser yes? Consider yourself a purchaser with personal responsibility for the care of my products." I brain was screaming at me to yell 'No way in Hell buddy' but I refrained and instead maintained my polite façade.

"I appreciate the offer but I quite enjoy my job as a bond enforcer." I heard a sigh come from the man from within the darkness of the backseat of the sedan.

"Very well Stephanie. However I will not take this as a definitive no. If you should change your mind, feel free to contact me." With that he handed a business card out the window, extending his light brown skin, well manicure nails and expensive watch that sat on his wrist above what I assumed was the sleeve of a ridiculously expensive suit.

When my fingers gripped the card the hand was gone and the window was rolling up as the sedan drove away. The large man was no longer standing behind me either so I was able to go sit on the bench in front of the bonds office and look at the card. It read Valentine Martinez, entrepreneur and a phone number below that that had an area code I didn't recognize. Damn. I looked at my watch for a second and realized that I was right. It wasn't even 9am yet and I had already gotten a creepy job offer from a guy you most likely ran a drug cartel. And I still had to go after Igor Franco.

I need a Boston Crème. Possibly six.

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	3. An Unexpected Downturn

**Next chapter is here! And the nice thing is that in four more days I will be done school and have more time to write so hopefully the wait between chapters will be shorter Don't forget to review and let me know what you think I really appreciate hearing from you guys!**

Chapter 3:

On the Other side of the Window

The window rolled up blocking out the sun and the prying eyes of the people of Trenton. Valentine smiled to himself as the car drove down the streets of Trenton heading for the harbour. Stephanie would be the perfect addition to his operation. Of course he would have to break her first.

"Uh, boss?" Valentine looked over at Jorge with disgust in his eyes. He hated working with the Americans. But American was what his clients wanted, so Valentine was willing to make some sacrifices. "Why are you bringing Stephanie Plum into this? Garcia told you that we would have to watch out for her not to bring her on bored."

"Garcia is afraid and weak." Martinez smirked looking back out the window as they approached the docks. "He doesn't see the benefits only the risks. And I feel that the benefits of taking Ms. Plum will outweigh the risks."

Jorge shut up after that. As he should. Actually Jorge should be apologising for questioning Valentines motives, but Valentine knew better than to expect miracles.

Martinez had his reasons for wanting Ms. Plum. The main one being the payoff, she would be able to handle his merchandise better than any of his current employees. The second being her own personal worth. And third revenge. Ricardo Carlos Manoso had ruined a good thing in South America and there was no way that he was going to get away with it.

Steph's POV:

I finally entered the bonds office 20 minutes later with a box of Boston crème donuts. Lula was already opening the lid before I had set it on the desk in the small office. I had already eaten my donuts in the car so I immediately asked Connie if there were any more files today. I might have been despite to avoid the fat naked skip that was sounding more and more like bad news.

"Vinnie hasn't brought the new ones out yet." Connie shrugged, "Morelli was in there talking to him so I haven't had the chance to get them off of him yet."

Lula interrupted me before I could do anything. "White girl, you know there's only 3 donuts in this box that's made for 12 right? Did they rip you off or something?"

I felt pink creep into my cheeks. I had been eating the donuts in the car. I just never noticed how many I ate. Apparently the answer was nine. Good I needed to run after Igor after my breakfast otherwise I was going to have to unbutton my jeans halfway through the day. "I'm stressed out. I need to make rent today."

"Nothing new today Steph," Vinnies head poked out of the door frame along with one hand extending some files to connie, "Only have skips for Rangeman"

Lula shrugged not pressing the matter and took two of the donut and handed the other to Connie who glared at her and the two donuts before taking a bite out of hers and banging on Vinnie's door. "Vinnie! Steph needs her skips!"

Vinnie was normally a slimy weasel who couldn't be trusted but the way I could hear him shuffling around in his office made me extra suspicious. My eyes narrowed on the door as it cracked open I could only see one of his eyes and a pies of his greasy hair that had fallen onto his forehead. "Sorry Steph nothing new for you today. I only have bonds for Rangeman."

Well shit. I was going to have to go after Igor Franco after all. I knew I should have stayed in bed. As I was thinking about this Connie took the files looked through them. Once she had read threw them she looked at Vinnie with a scowl. "alright Vinnie, where is the Anderson and Rosenberg files. Those were lower profile. I should know I did the searches on them."

Fear crept into Vinnie's eye and he started stuttering. He had given them away already and he was scared about what I was going to do. Which was a realistic concern considering that I could get overly violent when the situation called for it. I once tried to choke out my ex-husband and I hadn't even realized it until I was being pulled off of him. "You gave them to Joyce didn't you."

I guess my tone scared him a little because he shrink back a little, "Listen Steph I'm sorry but I had to give them up I didn't have a choice-"

"Oh you had a choice but you chose that bimbo over me. Wait until Harry hears about this!" Harry the hammer owned half of the bonds office, he was also Vinnie's father in law and His name wasn't a joke.

I was pissed. I had to pay my rent today, I had been accosted by mobsters on the frost street, I was going to have to exercise from eating those nine donuts and now Vinnie had given away my files to my arch nemesis. "I guess I should have known that you were a lying weasel huh? I mean if it looks like a duck and smells like a duck, then Vinnie's probably had sex with it!"

I was on a roll! That had been a fairly decent line for me to have thought it up on the spot. But he deserved it! Actually I probably wasn't even that angry at Vinnie but with the shitiness of my life right now and his stupidity I was getting desperate. And when I get desperate well it can be a scary thing.

The reason I probably didn't feel him enter was because I was in the middle of reaming Vinnie out. I hadn't noticed that Lula and Connie's jaw's had dropped and Vinnie had backed himself back into a corner. If I had noticed these things probably wouldn't have said what I said, "If I don't pay my rent today I'm screwed! Give me one of Ranger's files. I don't care if it's an arsonist or a rapist or a serial killer! Give it to me."

There was silence for a moment, and that's when I realized no one in front of me was paying attention to me. They were all looking past me. My confusion allowed my anger to subside and my spidy sense to work again which immediately indicated to me that Ranger was standing behind me with Tank.

"Babe." At his word I turned to face him and was met with one of the most beautiful sights known to women. Ranger was taller than me, had mocha latte skin that made me thirsty whenever I saw it and dark brown eyes that when I had first met him I had thought were blank. But I had been wrong it was one of the few places that I knew I could look and get a straight answer. Right now he was confused and worried about me. Which I'm fairly sure has become a staple emotion for him since meeting me. "Can I talk to you outside babe?"

I nodded in response and walked out the front door of the bonds office while ranger held the door for me. Seconds later I was pinned against the side of the bonds office in the alley. "Babe, care to tell me why you're stealing my skips?"

Ranger knew what he was doing. Having his body so close to mine made my head spin, made all of my rational thoughts disappear and he knew it. When I was able to string a sentence together my voice was airy and begging him to move closer. "I'm short on money and Vinnie gave my skips to the Trenton whore."

"If you need money, you just have to ask." Ranger stepped closer to me raising on of his hands to tuck a loose curl behind my ear while his other rested on my hip. I'm pretty sure I would have melted to the ground if it wasn't for the brick wall at my back. I shook my head trying to clear him from my mind so I could put some force behind my voice when I denied his money.

"I won't take your money Ranger. I want- I need to be able to stand on my own." I felt like giving myself an high five when my voice game out strong and clear instead of the garbled mess of hormones that it normally was when ranger stood this close to me. "Besides, it makes me feel cheap."

Ranger frowned at this. It wasn't normally something I see his mouth do, usually I see it smirking, or twitching with the threat of a smile, and every once in a while I would get a full blown 200 watt smile. Those were rare though so I didn't get my hopes up. "Babe, you are anything but cheap."

I felt a stab to my heart. Not exactly what a girl wanted to hear. Especially one that was had previously been labelled as a subcategory title entertainment in Rangers financial statements. He must have seen the pain on my face because his hands moved either side of my face softly stroking my cheeks. "Babe, not what I meant. You're priceless to me babe. And I wouldn't offer if I couldn't afford it and didn't want too. Your safety means a lot to me."

He pressed a kiss to my forehead before pulling away and making sure I was looking him in the eye, "Which is what I really wanted to talk to you about."

I saw flicker of pain in his eyes and then I saw him sigh as he pulled farther away from me. "I need to put a man on you for a while. You can have your pick of anyone in Rangeman. They can drive with you or watch from afar whatever you want."

`This was surprising. Ranger normally didn't ask to put a man on me, he usually just did. And the choices, those never happened either. Not to mention that nervous was not an emotion Ranger allowed to show on his face. But his eyebrows were drawn together, his eyes pleading and his mouth was in a grim line that I still wanted to kiss. I stepped closer to him closing the gap that he had created "What's wrong?"

"Legally speaking I can't say. But let's just say that the wind has come home with me this time and I need to know your safe." I must be growing up because my first reaction was hell no. No way I was giving up my freedom and privacy for a threat that might not exist. But in the second after that thought filled my head another one replaced it saying to take the bodyguard without a fight. Obviously this was important to him and after everything that he has done for me I owed him one. A third less important thing lingered in the back of my head. The drug lord who had accosted me in the street. If I had my very own Rangeman I wouldn't have to worry about that. But I should probably tell Ranger.

"Alright. But I have three conditions." His eyebrows raised marginally in a silent question or possibly in shock that I accepted so quickly. "One is that you pick the guy who comes with me based on who you can afford to take off their duties."

"Done."

"Two is that you have to come with me to diner with my parents, so you don't have to pay the men hazard pay." This wasn't really a deal breaker more like I was testing the waters for my third request.

"Think I'd rather pay the hazard pay." I punched him in the shoulder which made him laugh, "Babe your grandma's scary. But I'll come to dinner."

"Thank you. The third is for you to promise to not freak out after I tell you something." All the playfulness left his eyes and his blank face slammed down into place, " See immediately pulling that blank face out constitutes as freaking in your case."

"Babe."

Ahh the word that could mean so many things. I liked it when it meant he was turned on, when I amused him, even when it meant that I was worrying him. I hated it when I wanted a straight answer, when it meant he was angry with me, or like right now when it meant 'don't play with me Stephanie'. "Ummm well I got a job offer this morning. From a not so nice person, or at least I'm betting on a not so nice person by the way his henchman was hovering over me with his hand on his gun."

I dug into my purse and pulled out the card that Martinez had given me and handed it over to Ranger. His eyes left mine to look down at the card. Reading the name alone made him curse under his breath. He whipped out his cell phone and gave orders for someone to go search my apartment for any fowl play before hanging up the phone. He paced in the alley for a second, probably contemplating the mess that I had unknowingly gotten myself into.

How I did this to myself I had no clue but I must have the worst karma in the world. But the fact that Ranger was visibly showing signs of distress had me worried. After more cursing under his breathe and turned to look at me.

"Does asking you to come live at Rangeman count as freaking?"

**Alright what did you think? Will Steph go quietly? Or will she fight for her freedom? What is Martinez plan? And how is Joe going to react to Steph's new predicament?**


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